[IBM PC Genloc & Subtitling Program]
Chao Chen
subtitling program emailed me. Instead of answering them each
individually, I thought I would just post this on r.a.a. for
everyone's benefit.
Hardware:
Many people asked me which PC genloc they should get. As far as I'm
concerned, there's one and only one PC genloc to get in terms
of price/performance. This is the GVP G-Lock VGA+ card made
by Great Valley Products. I'll give several reasons:
1) When my friend first bought it, it was priced at $1000, when I
bought it, it was priced at $500. Now the stinkin' people
at GVP have price it down to around $300. There is no reason
not to get this card at $300. I'm happy that GVP has become
so agressive in the PC genloc market since Commodore's demise.
I just wished that they did this BEFORE I paid $500 for my card.
For even cheaper pricing, look in the latest Video Magazine.
If someone has GVP's phone number handy, they may want to post it.
I no longer have it.
2) The G-Lock VGA+ has one of the cleanest output that I've seen. I've played
with the Visionetic, RocGen, AVerPro, and other misc genlocs priced
at $500 - $600. None of them comes even close in terms of clearity
and cleaness of the GVP output. For those of you who have the Magni
VGA Producer Pro, this card uses the exact same genloc circuitry but
you don't pay the $1000 to $1500 demanded by Magni. How do I know this?
For one, the card itself is manufactured by Magni. Also, I got the specs
for both the VGA Producer Pro and the G-Lock VGA+. The specs are identical!
GVP licensed the technology from Magni and they have undercut Magni's
pricing. (I doubt people at Magni will be very happy when they find out).
The only weakness that I saw with this card is that it somewhat reduces
the color intensity of the input siganl. But for $300, it's a steal.
3) If you want something better than the GVP G-Lock VGA+, you will need to
spend at least $1000 to $1500. The only other cards that I can think of
to get are: Video VGA 16, Bravado, Targa, and maybe FAST Video Machine.
These suckers are expensive.
4) The ZeroG subtitling program written by my friend (some people mistakenly
think that I wrote this. This is incorrectly. I made suggestions but
I did not touch 1 line of code) works with this genloc without any other
software support (other than DOS). The program can control all funtions
of this genloc.
5) If you have a crappy VGA card, this is a good excuse to upgrade. The genloc
comes with a SVGA chip, the ET4000AX. Although this chip is getting
old and not nearly as fast as the new generation of accelerated VGA
chips, it's still one of the better ones. Plus you get 1MB of video memory.
So, for $300, you get both a genloc AND a SVGA adapter.
Software:
Currently, I'm using ZeroG V1.0 written by my friend. So far, in the
PC arena, I have not seen anything that's better than this program.
The program still has ways to go before it can compete feature for
feature with JACOsub but I think it's getting there. Some of it's
features:
1) Uses fonts with drop shadows for easy readability. The fonts
are actually converted Windows True Type fonts. Unfortunately,
the font conversion process is a bit troublesome at the moment
but the big win here is that ANY Windows True Type font can
be converted and used for subtitling.
2) You can define "styles" for your subtitles. These styles can be
either font size, color, smart/dumb line wrapping, fade in/out,
text placement, zone definitions, and misc other features.
3) I wrote a little quick and dirty program to convert JACOsub timed
script to be used with ZeroG. Although you loose the formating
information, you can at least use most JACOsub script with this
subtitler now. ZeroG can also read in TurboTitler timed scripts.
In the near future, we will put in the reading of JACOsub scripts
directly into ZeroG to save this conversion step.
4) This program has all the basic timing features built in. You can
actually read in ASCII scripts and start timing with this program.
It also has a built in time ramp feature to correct time drifts.
Although this program is probably not as polished as JACOsub, ZeroG is
still early in its development cycle. I like what I see so far and
I'm constantly giving my friend feedback on what other things
I would like to see in the program (and he has many great ideas that
he wants to implement too). I think ZeroG has a potential for a much
wider audience than JACOsub because the number of PCs vastly out number
the number of Amigas. I for one, know that I will not buy an Amiga
because 1) Commodore went out of business and 2) All that I'll be using
the Amiga for would be subtitling. This, in my mind, is not a wise
investment in a home computer since I would want it to do more than
that. I know that Amiga lovers will aruge with me to death of this subject.
But as far as I'm concerned, the game was over when Commodore went
under. I've owned Commodore 64's, VIC-20, Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, etc.
etc. so I didn't want another computer sitting in my basement collecting
dust.
Finally, ZeroG is not publicly released yet. I'm talking with my friend and trying to
arrange this with him. Hopefully, he'll be willing to release it soon. Since
Commodore went under, we'll see if we can give Amiga and JACOsub a run for their money
and give people an alternative besides Amiga and JACOsub. I understand that there's
also competition from the Mac arena with MacSubtitler but I doubt that you can get a
high quality genloc for under $300 with the Mac (besides, Macs are still expensive
compared to the prices of PCs). Nothing like huge volumes to lower the prices. ^_^ I
think that it's great that GVP has waken up and become so market agressive in the PC
area. I hope that GVP will grab a large share of the PC genloc market since the
product they sell is well designed, aggresively marketed, and amazingly priced.
(BTW, don't bother emailing me for GVP's phone number or for copies
of ZeroG. I won't answer you. I'll post ZeroG on the nets if it's
released.)
Chao
Craig Whittington
>Hardware:
>1) When my friend first bought it, it was priced at $1000, when I
> bought it, it was priced at $500. Now the stinkin' people
> at GVP have price it down to around $300. There is no reason
> not to get this card at $300. I'm happy that GVP has become
> so agressive in the PC genloc market since Commodore's demise.
> I just wished that they did this BEFORE I paid $500 for my card.
> For even cheaper pricing, look in the latest Video Magazine.
> If someone has GVP's phone number handy, they may want to post it.
> I no longer have it.
>
The price as of today is $399 for just the genlock. You can get some
character generation or editing software for $50 more. GVPs phone number
is (215)-354-9495 BTW :)
>2) The G-Lock VGA+ has one of the cleanest output that I've seen. I've played
> with the Visionetic, RocGen, AVerPro, and other misc genlocs priced
> at $500 - $600. None of them comes even close in terms of clearity
> and cleaness of the GVP output. For those of you who have the Magni
> VGA Producer Pro, this card uses the exact same genloc circuitry but
> you don't pay the $1000 to $1500 demanded by Magni. How do I know this?
> For one, the card itself is manufactured by Magni. Also, I got the specs
> for both the VGA Producer Pro and the G-Lock VGA+. The specs are identical!
> GVP licensed the technology from Magni and they have undercut Magni's
> pricing. (I doubt people at Magni will be very happy when they find out).
> The only weakness that I saw with this card is that it somewhat reduces
> the color intensity of the input siganl. But for $300, it's a steal.
>
When I first saw the subs produced with this genlock, I was amazed. I
had never thought of the IBM as a viable subtitling platform, but this
genlock convinced me to switch from my old Amiga 1000. As for the drop
in color intensity, you would have to see the source and output played
side by side to notice, IMHO.
>5) If you have a crappy VGA card, this is a good excuse to upgrade. The genloc
> comes with a SVGA chip, the ET4000AX. Although this chip is getting
> old and not nearly as fast as the new generation of accelerated VGA
> chips, it's still one of the better ones. Plus you get 1MB of video memory.
> So, for $300, you get both a genloc AND a SVGA adapter.
>
Also, it's a Hi-color card giving 32768 colors in up to 800x600
resolution. My older Diamond Speedstar didn't have a Hi-color
mode.
>Software:
>Currently, I'm using ZeroG V1.0 written by my friend. So far, in the
>PC arena, I have not seen anything that's better than this program.
>The program still has ways to go before it can compete feature for
>feature with JACOsub but I think it's getting there. Some of it's
>features:
>
Just ask him to add an easier method of positioning the text away from
the left and right borders :) I've had some shows where more than one
person is talking, and I like to put the subs right under the speaker.
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brad
GVP genlock for sale for $334. Their number is 1-800-322-1261.
Sorry I forgot the company name I was in a hurry and didn't have anything
to write the info down on
Later
Brad
Chao Chen
: How much signal loss is present when using a genloc? What I'm
: wondering is if there would be any benefit to using a signal amplifier
: between the genloc and recording unit, or is there not enough signal loss
: to bother?
In the case of GVP G-Lock VGA+, the video output quality itself is very
close to the original input signal. The loss is minimal. But, the color
intensive loss is more sever.
Usually, using a signal amplifier, noise is amplified along with the
video signal. From what I've found, signal amplifiers usually are
pretty useless unless you have a really good and expensive one (and by
that point, you're usually better off buying a more expensive genloc).
My usual conclusion is that it's better not to use one.
Chao
Craig Whittington
>Look in Video Magazine. Some mail order firm in there is selling it for
>less than $300 for the card alone. If you want software with the card,
>the price is about the same as what GVP itself sells it for.
>
Wish I would have found that before I ordered :( Oh well, I really
wanted the character generation package with it anyways :)
tommy kuei-che hwang
> How much signal loss is present when using a genloc? What I'm
>wondering is if there would be any benefit to using a signal amplifier
>between the genloc and recording unit, or is there not enough signal loss
>to bother?
Well, signal amp won;t really help unless you have multiple
outputs from the same source. The one thing that I have found
to be very very helpful is the use of Time Base Correctors eventhough
it may not really be necessary to have the capacity to do subbing work.
However, in the two or so years I am in this field I have found that
the Time Base Correctors, when used properly with the necessary
equiptments, really decrease resolution loss and blurring, etc..; thus,
allowing one, two, or maybe even three (in super extreme cases) additional
generations.
-TKH '94
Chao Chen
: The price as of today is $399 for just the genlock. You can get some
: character generation or editing software for $50 more. GVPs phone number
: is (215)-354-9495 BTW :)
Look in Video Magazine. Some mail order firm in there is selling it for
less than $300 for the card alone. If you want software with the card,
the price is about the same as what GVP itself sells it for.
Chao
The Javelin
for the VCR? I've seen these devices advertised in catalogs; it seems
they're used for adding titles to homemade videos...
So I was wondering, would it be possible to use one to put subtitles into
an anime video?
--
Wil
Iskandar Taib
Judging from the Spirit of Wonder tape I got from you, the PC genlock
does indeed to a GREAT job. Thanks much!
--
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Iskandar Taib | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NT...@SILVER.UCS.INDIANA.EDU | Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet: NTAIB@IUBACS !
Douglas Orlowski
with it...doesn't sound like too good a deal YET. One of the latest Mac
mags had a run down of the new AV units (retail $1200 US) and the
additional grahics overlay/capture cards for it. I think the full system
ran something like and extra $350 US to do video capture and display as
well as manipulation. That would include overlay. I'll try to come up
wit the issue in case anyone is thinking of getting a Mac anytime soon.
Donald T. McFall
I would think that you could find some graphics/title overlay software for
the $1200+ you'd spend on the Mac AV system. ^_^
-Donald McFall
st...@jetson.uh.edu